Generation Loss
by readerofasaph
Summary: Two years ago, Nijimura faked his own death in order to protect himself and his family from the Teikou Corporation. But when his hiding place is discovered by Himuro Tatsuya and Alexandra Garcia, Nijimura finds himself emerging into a world that is every bit as dangerous and complicated as the one from which he was forced to flee. A NijiAka cyberpunk AU.
1. Chapter 1

He awoke to a kiss, to the scent of synthetic perfume, to a woman's soft hair brushing against his face and neck.

The lips pressed against his mouth persisted as he blinked once, twice, and gradually came to wakefulness. He saw blue eyes, framed by anachronistic spectacles, and a beautiful face, some ten or fifteen years older than his.

She pulled away and drew herself to full height. She was tall and completely naked. "Welcome back to the world, kiddo."

He took stock of his surroundings. He was lying in a life support bed - one of those mass-manufactured units designed to be used by laypersons, complete with oxygen concentrator, radiant heater, and a touchscreen designed to take the user step-by-step through a near-infinite number of medical emergencies. A second monitor beeped above him. It said his core body temperature was 33 degrees Celsius.

First things first. "Who're you?" he asked. "Where am I?" And then, because she was at least a D-cup and it was distracting: "Could you put some clothes on?"

"Hmmm. You're doing crazy well for someone who's still defrosting." Her Japanese was fluent but heavily accented. A motley collection of clothing lay strewn across a nearby sofa. She extricated a pair of panties and put them on, surprisingly businesslike. "I need you to stay in that bed for another two hours. Bad things can happen if we're not careful with the rewarming process."

He knew that already. This was the first time he'd been fridged, but he'd done his research and weighed up the pros and cons before making the decision.

She answered his other two questions while pulling on a camisole. "The name's Alex Garcia. You're in my apartment. One of my protégés moonlights at a cryogenics lab and found you while he was running an audit of their freezers. You're not the only unregistered body Tatsuya found, but you're the only one he found interesting enough to bring home."

The monitor beeped again. His pulse rate had gone up, slightly. Still within normal limits. Below the recording of his body's vital signs was the date and time in softly glowing green numbers. 1931 hours.

"Is that the correct date it's showing?" he asked.

Alex looked at the screen. "Yup, it is. How long have you been asleep?"

Possibly too long, possibly not long enough. "More than two years."

"Do you want something to drink?" she offered. "It has to be lukewarm, mind you, nothing too cold or hot."

"Water will be fine." She left the room and he heard a tap running. A minute later she came back, holding a mug decorated with a cartoon baby tiger.

"34 degrees Centigrade exactly," she said. "Just like the doctor recommends."

He drank. It was only as the fluid went down his throat that he realised how parched his tongue was.

"My name's Nijimura Shuuzou," he said, after taking several greedy mouthfuls.

"Hello, Shuuzou," said Alex, grinning widely. "Welcome back to being alive."

It's good to be back, Nijimura wanted to say, but of course, he didn't remember being dead in the first place.

#

Two hours later he got out of the life support bed and stood to his feet, every muscle in his body protesting the discomfort of being utilised for the first time in years.

Alex offered him another mug of lukewarm water. "Best not to eat anything yet. Your digestive system needs time to warm up."

"Thank you," Nijimura said, taking the drink from her. "By the way, do you have a computer I can borrow?"

She raised an eyebrow, but nodded. "Tatsuya's got a touchscreen in his room. I can log you in, but I'll have to supervise – Tatsuya's very particular about who he lets play with his toys."

"I have no problem with that." First and foremost, he needed information. He'd figure out the next step once he knew what he had to work with.

Alex led him into the bedroom. It was small and square, with sparse but elegant furnishings. Black window blinds, black silk bedsheets. One built-in wardrobe, one twin bed, one glass-topped student desk with the aforementioned touchscreen built into the wall above it. There was a swivel chair in front of the desk, as well as a freestanding keyboard in white casing on top of it.

Alex signed him onto the computer and then folded herself onto the edge of the bed, watching as he ran searches.

Nijimura couldn't access his old work e-mail, that account definitely didn't exist anymore – or if it did, an attempt to login would alert the wrong people to the fact that he was still alive and breathing. His personal email accounts weren't safe either. Same for social network accounts. And bank accounts. In the days leading up to his fridging Nijimura had been forced to abandon his entire digital identity.

He'd had his implants deactivated and their memory wiped before he went cryo. He'd need to reactivate them if he were to function at all, but until then he was limited to what he could achieve by borrowing a stranger's computer terminal.

He found a popular search engine and typed into the main field: _Teikou_.

Over forty-five million results found. He restricted his search to include only news headlines from the last two years and scrolled through the matches.

_August 11th 2228: Long-awaited Project: MIRACLE launches next week._

Nijimura remembered that happening; he'd still been working for Teikou at the time.

(It had been _after_ the launch that everything went to hell.)

_October 8th 2228: Teikou share prices hold steady despite CEO Shirogane Kouzou's resignation due to illness._

That had taken place mere days after Nijimura went to sleep. He skimmed the article. So Sanada was Teikou CEO now? He'd never seemed like the type to be in charge.

_January 20th 2229: Teikou axes Project: MISDIRECTION._

_March 1st 2229: Touou pays 1.2 billion yen for contract with Project: MIRACLE subject._

_July 25th 2229: Were there secret additional subjects in Project: MIRACLE? Fukuda Sougo to recruit former Teikou employee._

Apparently a fuckton had happened in the last two years. He scrolled faster. He could read everything in more detail later. Best to get a handle on the general picture for now.

_August 4th 2229: Akashi Seijuurou elected president of Teikou subsidiary Rakuzan._

_November 29th 2229: PERFECT COPY season finale scores 60 million viewers as Kise Ryouta proves himself most bankable member of Project: MIRACLE._

Another bloody fucking three hundred news items to review. So much had happened. Two years, four months, and thirteen days. It felt like it'd only been hours ago that the cryogenist put him to sleep, the anaesthetic sending pins and needles travelling up his arm, before everything went blank and he went under the ice.

He glanced at the inside of his elbow. He could still see the small puncture mark where the needle for the anaesthetic had gone into his skin.

Behind him, Alex asked: "Who are you?"

He swiveled his chair around. She was still sitting on the bed, her face cupped in her hands.

"I can't answer that yet," he said finally.

She snorted. She was utterly unladylike and yet absolutely beautiful at the same time. "I figured _that_. Nobody your age ends up in cryo without a good reason, kiddo. And going by the specs on your capsule, you didn't even have an exit strategy planned."

Nijimura shook his head. "I left instructions with my lawyers. If I was still alive and frozen at the end of five years, someone was to retrieve my capsule and warm it up."

"How old are you?" asked Alex.

"Twenty years old when I went under." Nijimura closed the browser window. "Guess that means I'm still twenty years old."

"What's your connection to the Generation of Miracles?"

He did not reply.

Alex stood up. She really was tall, barely under Nijimura's height. "You've been under the ice for two years and the first thing you do is look for information on the city's most famous human modification project. Most people would be looking for their girlfriend, or their parents."

"I can't look for my family," said Nijimura. He didn't even know if his dad was alive. "Not until it's safe."

They were interrupted by the sound of the front door unlocking. A moment later a young man's voice called out: "Alex, I'm home."

Alex beamed: "It's Taiga! Finally, we can have dinner."

She led Nijimura back out to the living room. Once there, she grabbed hold of the young man standing by the sofa and started kissing him, once on each cheek, then on the lips.

The man named Taiga was taller than Nijimura, with a powerful build. His short spiky was red – either a _very_ impressive dye job or more likely, genetically modified. Taiga didn't look like the type who'd visit a hair salon often enough to keep his roots colored properly. He wore a black T-shirt and black jeans, and no accessories other than a plain silver ring on a silver chain.

Taiga tolerated Alex's first four or five kisses, but then awkwardly started trying to push her away. She stepped back, eyes laughing.

"Hello," said Nijimura. "I'm Nijimura Shuuzou."

Taiga stared at him, a little dumbfounded, then held out his hand. "Oh, you're the guy Tatsuya mentioned. I'm Kagami Taiga."

"Good to meet you, Kagami." They shook hands.

"Taiga's family owns this apartment," said Alex. "Tatsuya and I came to stay with him a few months ago."

Kagami shrugged. "It's good having company around. I'm going to make nabe for dinner. Tatsuya will be back by the time by the time I get the ingredients prepared."

"He doesn't seem too surprised to have a stranger in his apartment," commented Nijimura, as Kagami left the living room for the kitchen.

"Expect the unexpected, what's what I always taught them," Alex smiled. "Would you like to take a shower? It _has_ been two years, after all."

It was tempting; his limbs still felt stiff and sore and somehow grimy, even though logically being in cryostasis should have been perfectly clean. "What about clothes?" Nijimura asked.

"You're about the same size as Tatsuya, and he bought you some new underwear after he brought you home."

Tatsuya seemed to be excellent at planning, if the fact that he'd somehow smuggled Nijimura's capsule back from the storage freezers to this apartment was anything to go by. "-thank you," Nijimura said.

He accepted Alex's offer of a towel and went into the bathroom. Like the rest of the apartment, it was modern and spare. Nijimura hung his towel on the railing on the door and began unbuttoning his shirt.

_"...finally. I thought I'd never catch you alone."_

….Nijimura had experienced plenty of freaky things in his lifetime, but he'd never _hallucinated_.

"What the _fuck_," he said, blinking.

_"Before you ask, you are not hallucinating. Look up at the top right corner, above the toilet. You'll see a speaker there. Kagami Taiga uses it to listen to music while he's in the bathroom. I, however, am using it to communicate with you."_

Nijimura looked up. Sure enough, there was a tiny white speaker there, in the direction from which the voice was emanating.

"Who are you?" he asked.

_"I think you recognise my voice, Nijimura-san."_

"Cut the bullshit, you know what I mean."

_"Please lower your voice. It wouldn't do for Miss Garcia and Kagami-kun to learn of my existence just yet. But you are right that I am not the real Akashi Seijuurou. Please look in the bathroom mirror above the sink. It doubles as a touchscreen and I will be able to use it to communicate with you more effectively." _

Nijimura stared at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. It appeared pretty much as he remembered. Eyes narrowed, crooked grimace, hair in need of a trim. Light blue shirt still half-unbuttoned. Even as he watched, however, his image disappeared and was replaced by an equally familiar figure.

Long soft fringe. Eyes the color of wine. A smile that seemed to conceal everything.

_"You didn't deactivate __all_ the implanted technology in your body, Nijimura-san. After all, you couldn't deactivate implants whose existence you didn't know about."

"Who are you?' Nijimura repeated the question.

_"I'm Akashi Seijuurou's plan for keeping you alive_," said the boy -– the program - in the mirror. "_Please call me Sei."_

**End Chapter 1**

* * *

**Please don't expect actual credible science fiction here I am only writing this because I wanted a fic in which Akashi surreptitiously plants an AI version of himself into Nijimura's body okay.**


	2. Chapter 2

It was the most awkward shower of Nijimura's life.

Sei's image politely faded from the touchscreen mirror with a murmured, "_We'll talk again after you've had your bath._" Go figure that Akashi would program his AIs to have manners. Or at least the veneer of manners.

Sticking implants into people's bodies without permission wasn't exactly _good manners_, was it.

(But also not surprising, coming from Akashi.)

The bathroom's shower stall was state-of-the-art luxury. Kagami Taiga's family was obviously loaded. Nijimura had to spend a good half minute studying the control panel before figuring out the available options. There was an overhead rainfall showerhead, a handheld showerhead with adjustable spray and flow options, as well as a steam sauna generator. Dispensers attached to the wall offered an option of three shower gels and four shampoos.

Nijimura was just wondering whether he was going to need a manual just to figure out how to take a shower when he noticed a button marked AUTO on the control. Relieved, he jabbed the button with his thumb.

Five minutes later he was showered, air-dried, and dressed in a pair of stonewashed jeans and a grey turtleneck sweater belonging to the previously mentioned Tatsuya.

Sei's image flickered back into the mirror just as Nijimura was brushing his hair out of his eyes. "_You know, those clothes have some interesting properties. Take a look._"

As Nijimura watched, the colors of his sweater began to change to a dark russet red.

_"That sweater is programmed to change color according to your emotions_," said Sei. "_Once a set color coding pattern has been chosen, it'll detect your physiological parameters and use it to display the color that matches your mood. Anger. Anxiety. Lust._"

Nijimura felt himself flush. "I want you to disable that function."

"_As you wish, Nijimura-san._" Sei smiled. "_The rest of your implants have been reactivated and are ready and safe for the using. You will be able to connect to this apartment's wireless network without complications._"

"And you're coordinating all my hardware?"

_"As I was designed to do_."

"I just can't talk to you all the time when I'm around other people."

"_Why not? They'll just assume that your gear is highly advanced. Which it is. After all, it was designed by Teikou._"

Nijimura sighed and conceded the point. There were two more questions he needed to ask. "Did Akashi program you so that you could lie to me?"

_"Of course he did, although only if necessary. You do know that if I had answered that question in the negative, you would have gained no useful information whatsoever."_

"Can you get in touch with Akashi?"

The image in the mirror looked sad – or at least, the Akashi version of sadness, which was a tiny shift of expression in the eyes, imperceptible unless you'd been studying his face for years. "_Not yet. That's why he sent me._"

Nijimura shrugged. "I figured as much."

#

He went in to the kitchen and offered to help with dinner. Kagami looked surprised.

"You can prep the cabbage and the carrots," he said, nodding at the kitchen bench, where the vegetables were already laid out. "I'm just making the stock."

"You like cooking?" said Nijimura, glancing around the kitchen. It was spacious and well-equipped, with restaurant-quality gas burners and stone surfaces and overall, an old-fashioned feel.

"Picked up the habit a couple of years ago when I had to live by myself. Now I do the cooking for Alex and Tatsuya as well. Tatsuya could probably live on air and protein supplements if he had to, but Alex and I like real food."

Nijimura grinned. "My mum was like that. Pretty traditional. She'd have grown her own vegetables and raised her own chickens if we were rich enough to afford land. I sometimes helped out in the kitchen when I was a kid."

He began peeling the carrots, letting each strip of peel fall onto the chopping board. It didn't take long to finish cutting up the vegetables. Kagami brought out the tabletop burner and placed it on the clear glass table in the dining area that adjoined the living room. Nijimura arranged the plates of shungiku and enoki and shirataki around in a semicircle.

The doorbell rang, playing a piano-based jazz lick, before the front door opened.

"I'm home," said the newcomer.

"Welcome home," said Kagami. Right on cue Alex emerged from wherever she'd disappeared to while dinner was being prepared.

"Tatsuya!" she said brightly, leaning in, aiming for a full mouth kiss. Nijimura saw Tatsuya hold his face very still, just so – until the last moment when he turned his head and Alex's lips landed on his cheek instead.

"Love you too, Alex," Tatsuya said. He reached up to tuck several strands of her blonde hair behind her left ear, then turned his attention to Nijimura. "I see Sleeping Beauty's awake. Kiss him to life, did you?"

Nijimura considered the situation, then stuck out his hand. "The name's Nijimura Shuuzou. Guess I should thank you for not throwing me out with the trash."

Tatsuya smiled. "I only throw out what deserves to be thrown out, Nijimura-kun." They shook hands.

"Just Nijimura is fine."

"Then call me Himuro."

Their gazes met cautiously. There was a kind of guarded flirtation in Himuro's eyes. Nijimura wondered what it meant. (After three years of exposure to Akashi, Nijimura was now predisposed to seeing all forms of flirting as concealing some kind of secondary intention.)

Himuro said: "I'm sure you have an interesting story to tell."

Nijimura said: "I might even tell you some of it."

"But first, let's all have nabe!" chimed in Alex. Somehow she'd managed to throw one arm around Himuro's shoulders, and the other around Nijimura's. "Food first, dark mysterious pasts later."

#

Unbelievable amounts of food were consumed.

Nijimura thought of his own appetite as hearty, and Himuro didn't exactly appear to be on a diet either, but that was nothing to Alex and Kagami, who put away food as if it was the last meal they'd ever have.

"_That's interesting metabolisms they have there_," murmured Akashi's voice – Sei's voice – in his ear. Obviously Sei had taken control of Nijimura's audio-vocal implants.

Nijimura didn't bother replying to the AI. It was obvious that both Alex Garcia and Kagami Taiga had undergone a fair amount of modwork – but then again, so had 50% of the city's population, even once you excluded standard regulation implants. Preconception, post-conception, hormonal, nanotech, surgical, mechanical – everyone did _something_, either to themselves or to their kids. Nijimura's mother had been part of the _au naturel_ movement and had said no to most of the upgrades that Teikou had offered her children (special prices for families of long-term employees only), but even then Nijimura's movements were faster and his vision sharper than they would be, left to the course of nature.

Sei remained quiet while Nijimura helped himself to more beef slices. Then he – Nijimura couldn't help think of Sei as a _he_, which was probably one of those things that Akashi would have described as "Your usual cognitive weaknesses, Nijimura-san," – spoke again: "Ask them if you're allowed to connect to this apartment's local network."

As if Sei hadn't _already_ started wandering around the apartment's network, judging by that earlier display in the bathroom. Still, now that Nijimura's implants appeared to have been reactivated, it _would_ be useful to have continuous Internet access.

He voiced the question and the three of them looked at him for a moment.

Kagami was the first to respond: "First can you tell us why you iced yourself?"

"That's not an easy question to answer."

Kagami frowned at Nijmura, but nodded. "I get that. Still though, it'd make things a lot simpler if you'd just tell us upfront who you were running from."

"_Go ahead and tell them some of the truth_," said Sei. "_I did some background checking while you were in the kitchen. Miss Garcia and Kagami-kun both possess high levels of altruism and empathy and are unlikely to pose any threats to your goals. Himuro-kun, in the meantime, is containable._"

Nijimura looked around the table, seeing the attentive faces of the three people who'd in a manner of speaking, rescued him. He said: "For the last two weeks before I went cryo, someone was trying to kill me and my family. I was afraid it was my employer, so I took – drastic measures."

"Who did you use to work for?" asked Himuro.

"Teikou," said Nijimura, and saw Himuro's eyes flash in recognition.

"Teikou," Kagami said slowly. "That's where Kuroko used to work."

Nijimura blinked. "You know Kuroko Tetsuya?"

#

Kagami clearly didn't have the entire story, but Nijimura did glean some useful information from him.

It figured that Kuroko would have chosen to leave Teikou entirely. Nijimura had seen those psychometric testing results, year in and year out – too much empathy, too much tendency to introspect. At points Akashi had murmured possibilities of personality-altering psychotropic drugs – but those had never materialised.

"You like Kuroko too much as he is to try and change him, that's the problem," Nijimura had teased once.

"He's useful for counterbalancing Aomine and Kise," Akashi had answered coolly, refusing to engage.

Nijimura was willing to bet Kuroko Tetsuya hadn't changed too much in two years.

"Do you want to come to Seirin HQ and meet him?" suggested Kagami. "You can come with me to work tomorrow."

"Do you think it's safe?" Nijimura vocalised softly, communicating with Sei for the first time.

There was an odd delay before Sei replied: "_The risk is acceptable. Go ahead with Kagami-kun's invitation._"

#

Kagami led him to the spare bedroom (possibly one spare bedroom of many. The more Nijimura explored, the larger and more labyrinthine this apartment seemed.)

It was well into the early hours of the morning when Nijimura lay back on the bed – soft and smooth-sheeted and luxurious as everything in this apartment was. At his voice instruction the lights on the ceiling dimmed to pitch-black.

Nijimura kept his eyes open in the dark. "Sei."

The answering voice was immediate, soft syllables sounding in Nijimura's ears. "_Yes, Nijimura-san_?"

"Akashi was the one who suggested that I fake my death."

"_Yes._"

Nijimura rolled over onto his side. "So why he didn't tell me about you?"

"_I don't have that data, Nijimura-san._"

He snorted. "Of course you don't. Right now I can't even think of a good reason why I trust Akashi."

No reply. Despite the fact that he'd only awoken from cryo a few hours ago, Nijimura found himself getting sleepy.

He drifted off into unconsciousness, but not before managing to form the thought that the main reason he trusted Akashi was because he always had, and it was hard to imagine being any other way.

Even two years later.


End file.
